


sunlight through your window

by royaltyjunk



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, As you do, Childhood Friends, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, i guess, instead of declaring war on each other, mod!au interpretation of what would've happened if they'd actually talked, slight blue lions spoilers???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 11:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20226982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/royaltyjunk/pseuds/royaltyjunk
Summary: [Mod!AU] Edelgard was the last to arrive because her flight had been delayed, and although Dimitri thought he’d be able to find her first, it was really her who found them because she’d changed and their online interactions had indicated nothing of the sort to Dimitri.





	sunlight through your window

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Ideas: Imagine seeing IntSys kill your ship right before your very eyes and then deciding to write about it anyways  
I finished the Blue Lions route and then dropped everything (mostly everything, I played some Black Eagles in between lol) to write this so if there’s something that’s revealed in other routes that I got wrong that’s why

They met at the little coffee shop in the airport (yes, _that_ one). Poor Claude had to sit there for three hours trying not to look like he’d been staking the airport out for weeks, but when Dimitri got there Claude almost immediately got security called on him for trying to prank Dimitri, so really, who was to say he wasn’t having fun during those three hours.

Edelgard was the last to arrive because her flight had been delayed, and although Dimitri thought he’d be able to find her first, it was really her who found them because she’d changed and their online interactions had indicated nothing of the sort to Dimitri.

“Edelgard von Hresvelg,” she introduced herself stiffly, her hand gripping onto her suitcase. Claude obviously didn’t take to this kind of stiffness, but all Dimitri could wonder about was what had happened to the girl he once knew. That girl had never stared at him with judgement in her eyes, had never looked at people as though they were prey for her to hunt. And that girl would never dare to pretend like she didn’t know who he was.

“Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd,” he replied. They shook hands, and Dimitri held her gaze. There was no familiarity or warmth in her eyes. When he dropped his hand, he closed it into a fist and forced himself to keep quiet.

“Claude von Riegan,” Claude finally said after a moment of Edelgard staring at him, and then shook his head with a sigh. “I don’t understand you guys and your formal stuff.”

“Perhaps I enjoy making good first impressions unlike you, Claude,” Edelgard responded, flicking a lock of white (white!) hair over her shoulder before glancing over at Dimitri. He met her eyes and tried not to shudder. “Where is our ride? I believe you said something about getting us one.”

“She’s right there,” Dimitri replied, nodding over to Byleth who was sitting at a nearby table, sipping an iced coffee and scrolling through her phone. Edelgard stared at her for a moment, eyes narrowed. Dimitri watched, pursing his lips at the judgemental look upon her face before forcing back a sigh.

“Byleth!” Dimitri called. Byleth glanced up from her phone, expression brightening when she noticed the three of them.

“Good to go?” she asked. Dimitri just nodded, so she led the way out of the airport and into the parking garage. After shoving all their luggage into the trunk of her minivan they all piled into her car, not a word said to each other after their initial introductions except for a fight between Edelgard and Claude over who got to sit shotgun (it had originally been between the three of them but Dimitri had long since backed out).

“None of you are allowed to sit shotgun,” Byleth finally declared after about three minutes, clearly deciding she’d had enough with a capital E. “All of you are getting crammed into the back seat, and that’s the final call.”

“You see, this wouldn’t have happened if _someone_ had just let me sit shotgun,” Claude stated, directing a dirty glare at Edelgard. “Just for that, you’re sitting in the middle.”

“You say that as though you weren’t going to put me in the middle in the first place,” she retorted as Dimitri clambered into the car first. Claude laughed, and Dimitri grunted as Edelgard shoved her way in after him, accidentally jabbing an elbow into his side as she attempted to make herself comfortable before the veritable hurricane that was Claude threw himself into the car after them.

“If you kids break my car, I’ll murder you all.”

“Duly noted,” Dimitri responded, and Byleth angled the rearview mirror to meet his gaze.

“Cheeky,” she commented before starting up the car. “We’re going now, so buckle up. It’s going to be a long ride.”

“It’s only half an hour,” Edelgard pointed out.

“Half an hour with any of you is going to be insufferable,” Byleth muttered under her breath before laughing. “I didn’t really mean that. But no, it’s going to be an hour with this kind of traffic.”

“Fun,” Claude grumbled, and then groaned. “Ah, shit.”

“What did you do now?” Dimitri asked as they drove out of the airport and onto the highway. The sun was bright, spilling through the car windows and onto all of them. He raised a hand over his eyes, but the flash of the sun against Edelgard’s white hair almost blinded him.

“I picked at my fingers too much. Now there’s a shit ton of hangnail and wow, it’s bothering me.”

“Hold still,” she said, and dug through her bag. What she pulled out made Claude yelp and Dimitri start.

“Why do you have a switchblade!?”

“How did you get that through airport security!?” Dimitri gaped.

“If you’re going to stab each other, don’t do it in the back of my car,” Byleth stated. “But also try to play nice, kids.”

“I told you to hold still,” Edelgard said, tightening her grip on Claude’s hand. He went deathly still upon seeing the switchblade in her hands, watching as she nicked off the dead skin. “There. And don’t make me do that ever again. It was disgusting.”

“Message received.” Claude nodded, laughing nervously. “Please don’t stab me.”

“Can I see your switchblade?” Dimitri asked, offering his hand.

“Dimitri!” Claude yelped. “I thought we were friends.”

“I just want to see it,” Dimitri said, seeming to reassure both Edelgard and Claude. Edelgard pressed it into his hand just as they cruised into a tunnel.

“Tunnel!” Claude yelled. Dimitri snorted, and Edelgard rolled her eyes.

He could barely make anything out in the dim lights of the tunnel, but he could tell just by how it felt in his hands that it was the switchblade he’d given her so many years ago. He ran his finger along the handle before handing it back to her.

“Where did you get this from?” he inquired as nonchalantly as possible.

“To tell the truth,” she murmured, putting it back into her bag, “I don’t remember where it came from.”

And the pure honesty in her voice made Dimitri’s heart ache.

~ / . / . / ~

“I didn’t know you were also taking this class,” Edelgard murmured when he slipped into the seat beside her.

“Well, I didn’t tell you,” he pointed out. He nodded in greeting to the girl sitting next to Edelgard before refocusing his attention on her.

“I didn’t know that Byleth was a TA here,” she continued, glancing over at the front of the classroom where Byleth and Professor Manuela were preparing for class. “How do you know her?”

“She graduated from my high school when I was a freshman. She was also a TA back in school. She ended up in one of my classes.”

“Interesting,” she murmured, meeting his gaze. He swallowed, unable to formulate a response. He’d seen those eyes so many times in both the past and his dreams, and yet seeing them here—now—was so jarring.

“Edelgard—” he started, and then pursed his lips and shook his head at her inquisitive look. “No… never mind. It’s nothing.” Something banged on the window pane into his soul, screaming to be let out. He closed his eyes and turned away from her, sure that if he stared at her for too long she would decipher exactly what was wrong.

~ / . / . / ~

And so the next weeks cycled on, and he still refused to meet her eyes. She must have noticed, but she didn’t say anything to him, just sat in silence beside him every Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Dimitri thanked the goddess that she did so.

He was content with this. If she wished to leave the past in the past, he would respect her decisions.

But, he realized (far too late), perhaps he had made a hasty judgement about the person she was now.

He sighed, slumping against a wall and sliding to sit down, ignoring the people milling about the lounge around him. Sylvain had dragged him over to the Black Eagles House because someone had decided to throw a party in the commons’ room, and really, there could not have been a worse way Dimitri could have decided to spend his time.

His phone buzzed incessantly, and he glanced over. Sylvain. As expected. He picked up.

“What is it?”

“Where the hell are you?”

“Why?”

“That Edelgard girl was looking for you. Said to meet her upstairs if you wanted to.”

“Oh.”

“‘Oh’? That’s it? You do know what stuff like that usually means, right, Dimitri?”

“Don’t say anything else. Please.”

“You’re getting laid tonight. Bet. Call me when you—”

Dimitri pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation and hung up. Still, a morbid curiosity arose in his heart. He pushed himself to his feet and left to lounge to climb up the stairs, only to find her staring down at him.

“I see your friend finally decided to act on what I told him to do.”

“How long have you been waiting for me?” he murmured guiltily, ascending the stairs to meet her. He kept his eyes on his feet, careful not to slip. Somehow, he felt like danger was imminent whenever she was near.

“An hour or so.”

“Sylvain…” Dimitri sighed.

“I didn’t mind,” she said. “I figured this conversation would take the whole night, regardless of how long we had.”

A lump formed in his throat, and he forced himself to swallow it so he could answer. “Conversation?”

“You would do well to know I haven’t forgotten our shared history, Dimitri. You act as though I am a stranger.”

“Because you act like one to me,” he snapped back. Edelgard’s eyes narrowed.

“I’ve changed, Dimitri. You can’t expect me to act like the same girl I was back then. You, on the other hand, have not.”

“And how would you know that?” If only she knew about the festering hatred beneath his heart that he did his best to hide away from the world. She would regret her words.

“Because you never look at me, Dimitri. You never let me see you. You’re distancing yourself, Dimitri.”

“You’re saying you don’t do the same thing? Look at you! Nobody wants to get close to you because you keep pushing people away. What happened to you, Edelgard? You and your white hair and pale skin and emotional walls.”

Edelgard seized him by the chin, tilting his head down and forcing her to look at her. Fury fluttered in her gaze, alongside other emotions he could barely make out as they flashed by. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“And you don’t know anything about me, either. You wouldn’t know. Where were you all those years? Why didn’t you talk to me?”

“Maybe I was right to keep treating you as a stranger.” Her eyes blazed with terrifying passion.

“You wouldn’t dare,” he challenged. “We both know you couldn’t bear to do that.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” she murmured, and closed the distance between them with her mouth. He stared down at her before his eyes fluttered shut unconsciously and he pulled her closer, drinking in the feeling of her. Hands wandered, eyes met, lips reconnected.

They didn’t bother to close the curtains in her room. Moonlight seeped in through the window, dim and barely enough for them to get by on. He carried her in and saw her eyes glimmer with pale silvery light and her white skin seem to glow faintly as he threw her down on the bed.

He watched her afterwards, watched her eyelids droop with exhaustion and hide the warming emotions in her eyes, watched as her lips curved upwards in a smile as her eyes fluttered open one last time to see him before she fell asleep.

~ / . / . / ~

“Dimitri,” someone whispered, shaking him awake. Dimitri blinked open his eyes to see Edelgard standing beside him. “Uncle arrived earlier than I expected. I have to go pick him up from the airport.”

He started, sitting up as Edelgard bent to pick up her clothes from the floor. “Should I go too?” he asked, vaguely aware of how raspy his voice was. Edelgard stared at him blankly for a second before shaking her head.

“No, it’s fine. You…” she averted her gaze. “You should go back to your dorm. I can only keep my roommate out for so long.”

“Edelgard—” he caught her hand when she moved away from the bedside. “I’m sorry.”

She glanced at him strangely. “What for?”

He wanted to say something, but in the end, his voice could only manage a “Nothing” before he dropped her hand and slumped back down amongst her covers, eyes drooping shut. He couldn’t bear to look at her.

“Dimitri…” she murmured, and he felt her tuck the covers tighter around him. “I’ll… I’ll tell my roommates not to bother you. Stay as long as you’d like.” Her fingers parted his bangs, and he felt her press a hesitant kiss to his forehead.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, and Edelgard touched a hand to his cheek. He raised his own to rest it over hers, holding it there for a moment before burrowing tighter into the sheets (he pretended not to notice how she had flinched when he had touched her hand). They held the faint scent of mint and what he imagined sunlight would smell like.

“I’m sorry if my roommate wakes you.”

“It’s fine,” he whispered. She pulled her hand away and he slipped back into sleep, dreaming of the past he never thought he would see again.

~ / . / . / ~

“No one ever believes me,” Sylvain complained, chucking an empty soda can at Felix. He dodged, scowling.

“Because most of the time you say something, it ends up being meaningless drivel,” Felix retorted.

“But I’m _right_.”

“Only in this scenario you were,” Dimitri pointed out. “And can we please move onto another topic? We’ve been talking about this for the past two weeks, and I’d really rather not.”

“Because I need to be validated!” Sylvain whined. Felix picked up his phone.

“I’m calling Ingrid,” he grunted. “Maybe she can—”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop! I’m sorry! Please don’t call her. She’s either going to guilt trip me into the thirteenth layer of hell or beat the crap out of me.”

Dimitri blinked before laughing. “Wow. That’s a very accurate way to describe Ingrid.” There was a knock on the door, and they all glanced at each other. At the lack of response from any of them, Dimitri pushed himself up and opened the door. Edelgard stared back at him.

“Are you free?” she asked. He blinked and then nodded. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out to town with me.”

“Sure. Let me get ready, and then we can go.” Edelgard nodded and stepped into the dorm, shutting the door behind her as Dimitri ducked under his jackets to pull on his shoes.

“Ah, Edelgard. It’s nice to see you again!” Sylvain greeted. “Don’t mind us. We were just talking.”

“Oh. I didn’t interrupt, did I?”

“No. It wasn’t important,” Felix piped up. “Don’t sit like that. You’re going to drop your phone on your face.”

“I will not—Ow!” Felix sighed, and Dimitri heard Edelgard let out a soft breath in laughter. He hid his smile and stood up, shoving his wallet into his jacket pocket.

“We’re going out. Don’t set the dorm on fire.”

“Sure. Have a fun time.” Felix waved them off, raising his phone to his ear. “Sylvain—”

“No, no, no! Ingrid, you don’t need to come over!”

The distant cries of Sylvain and deadpans of Felix faded away as Dimitri took Edelgard’s hand and led her out of the dorm, shutting it behind them. Her hand was tense, and he quickly let it go. She walked beside him, silence settling between them until they left the dorm.

They’d spent time together after that night in her room. During their first meeting afterwards, Edelgard had been quite straight forward with what she wanted: a relationship, fair and simple. He had agreed. And then the unsettlement came.

Whenever he touched her, she flinched. She herself didn’t say anything of it, but he knew she was aware of her reactions. And it was not as though she did not like his touch. She had no trouble holding his hand or hugging him or kissing him—so long as she was the one who had initiated it. Somehow, it made sense. When they were children, Edelgard had always wanted to be in charge. She had always led when she taught him to dance, and she had always been the one to plan their various misadventures in the forest.

Still, dissatisfaction seemed to fill his heart. It felt as though he couldn’t reach her, even in the most intimate form of interaction. She had distanced herself, and she was still doing so. Nothing would happen without her say.

And slowly, he began to wonder if that would ever change. Months passed, and still, their time together remained ever the same.

“Dimitri?” Edelgard questioned, taking his hand and lacing her fingers with his. He blinked and shook his head.

“Sorry. I was just thinking.” When he smiled and she smiled back, it somehow didn’t feel fully satisfactory.

~ / . / . / ~

“Dimitri,” Dedue greeted, nodding. Annette and Mercedes turned to look, the concerned looks on their faces seeming to deepen when they saw Dimitri. He went to Annette’s side, sitting with them.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. There were no major assignment coming up, what with midterms having just passed, so he couldn’t imagine it was academia related.

“Well…” Mercedes held her cheek with her hand, sighing. “There’s been a troubling rumor going around… after all, it’s almost the anniversary of the tragedy of Duscar Road, isn’t it?”

The demons in his heart pounded with all their might against the windowpane to his soul, and he averted his gaze, drawing in a breath. Force them down, force them down—

When he glanced back up Dedue didn’t say anything, just watched Dimitri with concerned eyes.

“...Sorry,” Dimitri murmured, turning back to Mercedes. “Yeah, it is.”

“The rumor says that Edelgard was involved with the tragedy of Duscar Road,” Mercedes stated, shaking her head. “Supposedly her uncle brought it up to the principal, which was why he was here earlier this year and how someone found out. Of course, I don’t believe that…”

“Yeah! What would she even gain from that? And what would her uncle gain by trying to tell them that?” Annette huffed before reaching up and patting Dimitri’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to them, Dimitri. They’re just trying to… start shit!”

“Don’t swear,” he laughed, “it sounds weird when you do. But thank you.”

Still, there was a nagging in his soul that wouldn’t stop, that wouldn’t let him stop thinking about it until he brought it up.

So he did, a few days later on a date at a nearby café. He set down his cup of coffee, drawing in a breath.

“There’s a rumor—”

“I’ve heard about it,” Edelgard cut him off, rolling her eyes. They glittered in the sunlight that seeped through the café’s windows. “It’s a pretty silly rumor, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Sorry. Can I borrow your switchblade for a second?”

Still, the unsettling feeling in the bottom of his stomach persisted.

~ / . / . / ~

“...I have… errands,” he mumbled, shoving Edelgard’s hands away roughly. “I need to go.” She didn’t say anything, just sat down on the edge of her bed and watched him sling his bag over his shoulder.

“Is everything okay?” she finally asked.

“Yes,” he said curtly. She didn’t usually ask him about how he was nowadays, after he’d started distancing himself from her when he’d learned about the rumors. He wasn’t sure how to feel about her asking.

“I want to stay in your room tonight,” she said, picking at the lint on her sweater (as if she actually had any). “Dorothea’s having friends over for a party. I’d rather not be involved with it.”

“...Okay,” he murmured. “Come over at eleven. I’m tired, though. Don’t expect anything else.” He turned on his heel and left the room before he could see the expression on her face, forcing down the festering guilt in his heart.

~ / . / . / ~

“No…!”

Dimitri grunted as Edelgard pressed closer to him, slowly pulling him out of sleep. “What…?”

“Father—please—”

He turned away, meaning to go back to sleep (she’d always talked in her sleep, after all) when it suddenly occurred to him that her father had fallen ill many years ago, and remained bedridden. He’d never heard her call for him, not in all the time they’d spent together. He rolled over and shook her shoulder. Her eyes flew open, mouth pitched in a scream when she realized who had woken her.

“Dimitri—”

“You were talking in your sleep. You always do, but it was… worse this time.”

“...I know,” she replied softly, and then slowly sat up. “How much did… you hear?”

“Only you calling for your father.”

She stared down at him with indecipherable emotion in her eyes before letting out a sigh.

“...Nightmares?”

“I get them from time to time, yes.” There it was. She’d put up the wall again. “You don’t need to worry. Go back to sleep.”

“What are they about?” he asked, blatantly ignoring what she’d just asked him to do. He watched her, noting how her hand seemed to tighten around her wrist, where a faint scar was. “Edelgard…”

“Yes, I got them from him,” she confirmed, a reluctant intonation in the way she spoke. Her eyes were filled with terror. He wished, not for the first time, that she would let him touch her—comfort her. “He… had been studying human bloodlines. And so… he thought to use…”

“You?” Dimitri finished. Edelgard directed her gaze away, something unspoken in her eyes. “Your… family?”

“They’re all dead, Dimitri,” she stated bluntly. “All except for me, and my parents. My father is bedridden, and my mother—” her face contorted with contempt, “she left us when she found my father’s research would not produce a fortune.” With that she turned around, leaving Dimitri to stare at the sharp scars that were visible on her pale back, illuminated in the moonlight. Her gaze was fixed on the curtains, and she reached over to pull them apart slightly, just so she could stare up at the sky.

It was as though the world had opened itself up to Dimitri, just as Edelgard had. It all made sense. Her hair, her evaluatory attitude, her unwillingness to let him touch her. It all made sense, and all he could think was, finally.

Dimitri didn’t say anything—he didn’t have the heart to. Gently, slowly, he touched his fingertips to her shoulder. She tensed, but before he could pull away she melted beneath his touch, falling back against his chest as she dissolved into choked sobs. As he held her Edelgard’s hands crept upwards, brushing gently against his skin before grabbing tightly onto his arms as her body shook.

“I—I—”

Dimitri rested a hand atop hers, hugging her tightly. In the faint moonlight her hair glimmered silver, and when she shifted her head to look at him he could see the trails of tears running down her cheeks.

“I hated her,” Edelgard blurted out. “I never—never, ever wanted to see her again, but Dimitri… the—the tragedy on Duscar Road—she and Uncle—” Edelgard cut herself off, turning her gaze away from him and back out the window. Her cuticles were digging into his skin.

The unsettling feeling at the bottom of his stomach finally made sense. Slowly, it faded away. The tragedy on Duscar Road was not just about him anymore. It had never, he realized, been just about him.

“...Say something.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It—”

“Just let me hold you, Edelgard. Please. Until you calm down.”

Edelgard rubbed her eyes and wiped her cheeks, not saying a word. He had always known her as stalwart and strong, a pillar of strength. To see her in such a state made Dimitri’s heart ache.

“I always thought so,” he continued. “I always suspected your uncle had something to do with it. I could never bring myself to truly think about it. I… didn’t want to know the truth. But Edelgard, it’s not your fault. I don’t hate you. I couldn’t hate you.”

“Liar,” she whispered. “You hate me. Even now.”

“...Up until just then, I did,” he admitted. “But some part of me didn’t want to hate you. I wanted to believe that you hadn’t done it. And… I was right.”

“Dimitri…”

“I imagine at another time, I’d have flown into a fit of rage, but… to hear you say that it wasn’t you is so relieving.”

“Di… mitri…” Edelgard sobbed, clinging tighter onto his arms. He held her tighter, not caring about the hot tears that fell onto his skin.

“Let me hold you, Edelgard. Let me be with you. Just for now.”

“Of course,” she whispered, breaths shaky.

They sat in the moonlight for hours, hands intertwined and bodies pressed flush against each other. Every once in a while Edelgard would turn to kiss him, and whenever she did he saw a jumble of emotions in the bright depths of her eyes. He wondered if he would ever know what they meant.

~ / . / . / ~

Edelgard was waiting for him when he left the lecture hall, her eyes undecipherable.

“Edelgard?”

“Could we speak somewhere… private?” she requested. Something akin to terror alighted in his heart, but he forced himself to look her in the eyes.

“Sure,” he agreed. “Would the Blue Lions House courtyard be alright with you?”

“That’d be fine,” she agreed, letting him lead the way. She was silent all the way there, not giving Dimitri the slightest clue as to what she wished to speak about.

They came to a stop beneath the great oak tree behind the dorm, obscured from view. Edelgard set down her bag, and he did the same before meeting her gaze.

“...You deserve so much more than me,” she whispered. “I have my own ambitions, and I know you have yours. And yet… when I am with you… there is nothing else that compares. You ought to leave me.”

“You know I wouldn’t do that,” he reassured.

“You could have better than me, Dimitri. I love you. But I’m being selfish. I haven’t been treating you like a real partner should have. I’ll lose sight of your wishes, I’ll lose you and never be able to—”

“El!” Dimitri’s hands seized her shoulders without thinking and she started, eyes widening. “...I love you. I think I’ve always loved you.”

“Dimitri…” she whispered, her voice alighting with recognition in every syllable she spoke. He dug through his pockets, retrieving the item he had borrowed from her and had never given back.

“I never gave this back, and you never asked for it. I… I wasn’t sure when to give it back, but now seems good enough.”

“You gave it to me,” she said, her voice barely audible. “You gave it to me, and I _forgot_.”

“I don’t blame you. It was a pretty bad parting gift anyways.”

“That doesn’t—”

“I don’t blame you,” he repeated firmly, and pressed the switchblade into her palm. She held it to her heart, eyes closed. “We’ll be okay,” he reassured in a soft voice. She let out a shaky breath and clenched her fist tight around the switchblade.

“I know,” she murmured. She pocketed it and grabbed his shirt, pulling him down to her height before moving her hands to clutch his face. He was one hundred percent certain that her fingers were leaving imprints on his cheeks. “...I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “I’m sorry for never letting you touch me. I’m sorry for never letting you near me.”

He stared at her, and for a moment was unable to clear his lips of the barrier that shock had formed. “Edelgard—” he started.

“I know. I… please. I don’t want you to be afraid of me anymore.”

“I’m not.”

“You are. I know you are.”

“I’m not,” he protested, slightly more vehement this time. When she opened her mouth to protest, he bent down and kissed her. She froze for a split second before tightening her already vice grip-like hold on his face, kissing him back. It felt as if she were trying to pour a whole seven months worth of regret into this one kiss, and he responded with seven years of it.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered breathlessly.

“You don’t need to say sorry.”

“It’s not about needing to say sorry, it’s about wanting to.”

“Then I accept your apology, even though I think you didn’t need to apologize.”

“...Can we start over?” she asked as she slipped her hands into his. “Do it right?”

“Everything?”

“Not—just…” Her hands tightened around his. “...It’s been a while, Dimitri.”

He squeezed back comfortingly and smiled, his heart as warm as the campfires they’d shared in the chilly mountains of Fhirdiad. “It’s nice to see you again, Edelgard.”

“I’m sorry for not keeping in contact with you, and for… not saying goodbye to you so many years ago.”

“I—”

“I love you. I’ve loved you since we spent that year together in Fhirdiad.”

“I love you too, Edelgard. I’m sorry I never told you. That I just gave you a shitty switchblade as a parting gift.”

At that Edelgard laughed, and the sound brought upon memories—memories of lying in the forest, of catching the sunlight between the gaps in trees, of having picnics in clearings that turned into strict dance lessons underneath the setting sun.

“I didn’t mind,” she responded, and he met her gaze. Her eyes glimmered with pure joy, and he couldn’t help but kiss her again. When he reached up to hold her face, her cheeks were warm with the sunlight spilling onto them.


End file.
